Of the State of the Arts and Sciences in Syria. with fallings and inflexions of tones, which, it is perhaps impoffible for the throat of a European to imitate. Their expreffion is accompanied with fighs and actions that paint the paffions with a force which we could not venture to attempt. They may be said to excel in the melancholy ftile. To see an Arab with his head reclined, his hand near his ear in the fhape of couch; to fee his eye-lids raised, his eyes languish ing; to hear his plaintive tones, his lengthened notes, his fobs and fighs, it is almoft impoffible to refrain from tears; and tears, which as they fay, are not forrowful: indeed, there must be some charm in them; for of all fongs, thofe that draw them moft copiously, are thofe that are preferred; and of all talents, that of finging is in the greatest estimation. The dance, which among us is held to be a fifter art with mufic, does by no means hold the fame rank in the opinion of the Arabians; a degree of contempt is annexed to it; and a man cannot practice it without dishonour. It is only tolerated among the women. It is not here as it was with the Greeks, an imitation of warlike geftures, or a combination of graceful attitudes and motions, as with us; but a licentious representation of the wantonnefs of libertinifm. It is that fort of dance which was brought from Carthage to Rome, and announced the decline of republican virtue, and which afterwards was revived in Spain by the Arabs, where it is still preferved under the name of Fandango. In fpite of the freedom of our manners, it would be difficult, without offence to modefty, to defcribe it exactly; it is fufficient to fay, that none but prostitutes dance in public. known. Barbarifm is compleat in Syria, as well as in Egypt; and the uniformity that generally prevails in one kingdom, is extended over all Turkey. It is in vain that mo dern travellers talk of colleges, and places of education, and of books: thefe words in Turkey do not convey the fame ideas that they do with us. The age of the Kalifs is paft for the Arabians, and it is still to come for the Turks. Neither of thefe nations have at prefent Geometricians, Aftronomers, Musicians, or perfons fkilled in Phyfic. There is hardly a perfon to be found that can perform the operation of bloodletting. When fuch a one has ordered the cautery, and applied the fire, or has prefcribed a common receipt, his fcience is exhaufted: thus an European valet is confulted here as an Efculapius. Where, indeed, are physicians to be educacated in this country even anato my is repugnant to the fpirit of their religion. Aftronomy might be fuppofed to have more charms for them; but by aftronomy they understand the art of reading the decrees of fate in the stars. The monks of Marhanna, who have books, and who maintain a correfpondence with Rome, had never, before my arrival, heard that the earth revolved round the fun, and I was on the point of being treated as a heretic; but the Vicar-General interpofed, and I was glad to let the opinion reft on the credit of our literati, whom the monks here confider as mere vifionaries. The only study the Arabians en gage in is that of their language; but this ftudy has respect only to religion. As the Koran is the Word of God, and that word lofes its i dentity if it is not pronounced as The analogy that fubfifts between it was by God and his prophet, it the arts and sciences may make us is a material affair to learn, not onprefume, that the latter are ftill ly the meaning of the words, but more neglected, if not totally un- the accents, the inflexions, the pauVOL. VI. N° 32. H fes, fes, the fighs, and, in fhort, all the minutiæ of their profody. But one must have heard the declamation in their mosques, to have a just idea of the complicated nature of this study. As to the principles of their language, the grammar alone employs them feveral years. Then comes the Nahou, a part of grammar which may be defined the knowledge of terminations that are foreign to the Arabic idiom, and that vary according to the numbers, cafes, genders, and perfons. Thofe that have attained this, are reckoned in the number of the learned. Eloquence is next to be studied, and this requires years; for the teachers, as myfterious as the Bramins, difcover the fecrets of their art but by degrees: And, laftly, comes the study of the law, and of theology. Now, if we confider that the foundation of all thefe ftudies is the Koran, that its myftical and allegorical meaning is to be inveftigated, all the commentaries and paraphrafes on its text to be read, (and there are 200 volumes on the firft verfe,) thousands of ridiculous cafes of conscience to be difcuffed;, and, laftly, when we know that the subject of long difputations among them is, Whether the foul of their Prophet was not created before that of A. dam? whether he did not give his advice at the creation? and what that advice was we will be convinced, that a whole life may be fpent in ftudy without acquiring much knowledge. As the expounders of the law here do not exercife the functions of our priests, as they neither preach nor catechife, the common people receive very little inftruction: the children are fent to mafters, who teach them to read the Koran if they are Muffulmans, or the Pfalms if they are Chriftians. They are alfo taught a little writing and arithmetic, and this inftruction lafts till they are old enough to follow fome occupation for their livelihood. The ignorance that prevails among the people of the Eaft is not owing, as has been said by a late writer, to the difficulties of their language, and of their written characters. Thefe, indeed, muft in fome degree increafe the difficulty of inftruction, but they are foon overcome; and the Arabians can often write and read with as much facility as we do. The true caufe is the difficulty of the means of inftruction; and of these means, one of the principal is the scarity of books. In all Syria there are only two col lections of books; one of which does not contain above three hundred volumes. Cairo alone has a very ancient collection; but it is inacceffible to the Chriftians. However, about twelve years ago, the convent of Marhanna wanting to procure fome, fent one of their number to purchase them at Cairo. Chance procured him the friendfhip of an Effendi, who, in return for fome leffons in aftrology, communicated to him, in less than fix months, upwards of two hundred books. He told me they were on the fubjects of grammar, on the Nahou, on eloquence, and interpretations of the Koran, but very few hiftories, or even tales: he had seen but two copies of the Thousand and One Nights. We have, therefore, reafon to conclude, that in the East there is not only a want of good books, but that books in general are very rare. The reafon is evident :-in thefe countries all books are in manufcript, fo that it is impoffible they can be greatly multiplied, or that knowledge can be widely extended; and it is by a comparifon of the state of these nations with our own, that we can only have a proper eftimation of the advantages of the Art of Printing. Its influence is fo great, that the Difquifition, by Dr Johnson, on Literary Property. 63 the establishment of the Marhanna The fcarcity of books, and the want of the means of instruction, are thus the caufe of ignorance among the Orientals; but they are not the only caufe:-The radical fource of that ignorance is the go vernment, which not only does not encourage the acquifition of knowledge, but does its utmost to fupprefs it. Under the administration of Turks, there can be no hope of fame or profit from arts, fciences, or belles lettres: with the talents of the most able mathematicians, aftronomers, or engineers, they would not only languifh in obfcurity, but would be expofed to perfecution. Now if fcience, which of itself is acquired with so much labour, is to be attended with nothing but mise fortune, it is better never to acquire it. Thus the people of the Eaft are ignorant, for the fame reafon that they are poor, and they ought to be fo; for what they fay with regard to the improvements in art, they fay likewife, with regard to attainments in science, What occafion have we for more?" alone, imperfect as it is, has already occafioned a fenfible difference among the Chriftians: reading, writing, and even fome degree of inftruction is more common among them now than it was thirty years ago. Unfortunately they have begun with that fort of it which retarded the progress of the human mind in Europe, and excited numberlefs diforders. Bibles and books of religion having been the first offfpring of the prefs, every one's at tention was directed to theological difputes, which raised a fermentation that produced fchifm in the church, and political troubles every where. If, instead of tranflating their Buzembaum, and the mifanthropical reveries of Nievemberg and Didaco Stella, the Jefuits had promulgated books on the fubjects of practical morality and focial obligation, adapted to the state of the people among them, their labour would have had fuch political confequences as would have changed the fyftem in all Syria. But now that the firft fervour is exhaufted on useless objects, all is loft, Confiderations by the late Dr Samuel Johnfon, on the Cafe of Dr Trapp's Sermons, abridged by Mr Cave, 1739 *. THAT HAT the copy of a book is the property of the author, and that he may, by fale or otherwife, transfer the property to another, who has a right to be protected in the poffeffion of that property, so transferred, is not to be denied. 2. That the complainants may be lawfully invested with the property of this copy, is likewife granted. vaded by an act, in itself legal, and juftifiable by an uninterrupted feries of precedents, from the first establishment of printing among us, down to the present time. 4. He that purchases the copy of a book, purchases the fole right of printing it, and of vending the books printed according to it; but has no right to add to it, or take. from it, without the author's confent, who ftill preferves fuch a right in it, as follows from the right every man has to preserve his own reputation. H 2 5. Every Gentleman's Magazine. 3. But the complainants have mistaken the nature of this property; and, in confequence of their miftake, have fuppofed it to be in 5. Every fingle book, fo fold by the proprietor, becomes the property of the buyer, who purchases with the book the right of making fuch ufe of it as he fhall think moft convenient, either for his own improvement or amusement, or the benefit or entertainment of mankind. 6. This right the reader of a book may use many ways to the difadvantage both of the author and the proprietor, which yet they have not any right to complain of, becaufe the author when he wrote, and the purchaser when he purchafed the copy, knew, or ought to have known, that the one wrote, and the other purchased, under the hazard of fuch treatment from the buyer and reader, and without any fecurity from the bad confequences of that treatment except the excellence of the book. 7. Reputation and property are of different kinds; one kind of each is more neceffary to be secured by the law than another, and the law has provided more effectually for its defence. My character as a man, a fubject, or a trader, is under the protection of the law; but my reputation as an author is at the mercy of the reader, who lies under no other obligations to do me juftice than thofe of religion and morality. If a man calls me rebel or bankrupt, I may profecute and punish him; but, if a man calls me ideot or plagiary, I have no remedy, fince, by Telling him the book, I admit his privilege of judging, and declaring his judgement, and can appeal only to other readers, if I think myself injured. 8. In different characters we are more or less protected; to hifs a pleader at the bar would perhaps be deemed illegal and punishable, but to hiss a dramatic writer is juf tifiable by custom, 9. What is here faid of the writer, extends itfelf naturally to the purchafer of a copy, fince the one feldom fuffers without the other. 10. By these liberties, it is obvi, ous, that authors and proprietors may often fuffer, and sometimes unjuftly: but as these liberties are encouraged and allowed for the fame reason with writing itself, for the difcovery and propagation of truth, though, like other human goods, they have their alloys and ill confequences; yet, as their advantages abundantly preponderate, they have never yet been abolished or reftrained. 11. Thus every book, when it falls into the hands of the reader, is liable to be examined, confuted, cenfured, tranflated, and abridged; any of which may destroy the credit of the author, or hinder the fale of the book. 12. That all thefe liberties are allowed, and cannot be prohibited without manifeft difadvantage to the public, may be eafily proved; but we fhall confine ourfelves to the liberty of making epitomes, which gives occafion to our prefent inquiry. 13. That an uninterrupted prefcription confers a right, will be eafily granted, efpecially if it appears that the prefcription, pleaded in defence of that right, might at any time have been interrupted, had it not been always thought agreeable to reafon and to justice. 14. The numberless abridgements that are to be found of all kinds of writings afford fufficient evidence that they were always thought legal, for they are printed with the names of the abbreviators and publifhers, and without the least appearance of a clandeftine tranfaction. Many of the books fo abridged were the properties of men who wanted neither wealth, nor intereft, nor fpirit, to fue for juftice, if they had thought themselves injured. Many of thefe abridgements must have been Difquifition, by Dr Johnson, on Literary Property. been made by men whom we can leaft fufpect of illegal practices, for there are few books of late that are not abridged. 15. When Bishop Burnet heard that his "Hiftory of the Reformation" was about to be abridged, he did not think of appealing to the Court of Chancery; but, to avoid any mifreprefentation of his Hiftory, epitomised it himself, as he tells us in his Preface. 16. But, left it fhould be imagined that an author might do this rather by choice than neceffity, we fhall produce two more instances of the like practice, where it would certainly have not been borne if it had been fufpected of illegality. The one, in Clarendon's Hiftory, which was abridged in 2 vols. 8vo; and the other, in Bishop Burnet's "History of his own Time," abridged in the fame manner. The first of these books was the property of the University of Oxford, a body tenacious enough of their rights; the other, of Bishop Burnet's heirs, whofe circumstances were fuch as made them very fenfible of any diminution of their inheritance. 17. It is obfervable that both thefe abridgements last mentioned, with many others that might be produced, were made when the Act of Parliament for fecuring the property of copies was in force, and which, if that property was injured, afforded an easy redrefs: what then can ed inferred from the filence and forbearance of the proprietors, but that they thought an epitome of a book no violation of the right of the proprietor? 18. That their opinion, fo contrary to their own intereft, was founded in reafon, will appear from the nature and end of an abridge. ment. 19. The defign of an abridgement is, to benefit mankind by fasiliating the attainment of know-. 65 ledge, and by contracting arguments, relations, or defcriptions, into a narrow compafs; to convey instruction in the eafieft method, without fatiguing the attention, burdening the memory, or impairing the health of the student. 20. By this method the original. author becomes, perhaps, of lefs value, and the proprietor's profits are diminished; but these inconveniences give way to the advantage received by mankind from the easier propagation of knowledge; for as an incorrect book is lawfully criticifed, and false affertions justly confuted, because it is more the intereft of mankind that error should be detected and truth discovered, than the proprietors of a particular book fhould enjoy their profits undiminifhed; fo a tedious volume may no lefs lawfully be abridged, because it is better that the proprietors fhould fuffer fome damage, than that the acquifition of knowledge fhould be obstructed with unneceffary difficulties, and the valuable hours of thousands thrown away. 21. Therefore, as he that buys the copy of a book, buys it under this condition, that it is liable to be confuted if it is falfe, however his property may be affected by fuch a confutation, fo he buys it likewife liable to be abridged if it be tedious, however his property may fuffer by the abridgement. 22. To abridge a book, therefore, is no violation of the right of the proprietor, because to be fubject to the hazard of an abridgement was an original condition of the property. 23. Thus we fee the right of abridging authors established both by reafon and the customs of trade. But, perhaps, the neceffity of this practice may appear more evident, from a confideration of the confequences that must probably follow from the prohibition of it. 24. If |